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The Importance of the Established Custodial Environment in Michigan
Divorce is a difficult and emotionally draining undertaking in and of itself, but when children are involved, it becomes even more complex. When parents have to decide where kids will end up, or worse, courts have to make a determination, the stakes are very high. If you’re a parent interested in retaining partial or full custody of children following a ...
CONTINUE READINGProblems with Proposed Changes to the “Best Interests” Law
In our last post, we broke down the changes to the Child Custody Act of 1970 being proposed in Michigan House Bill no. 4691. This time, we’re going to get a bit opinionated on the subject. We mentioned in our previous post several things that the House Bill did right, and several that were clearly wrong. Talking about the wrong ...
CONTINUE READINGBreaking Down Proposed Changes to the “Best Interests” Law
Michigan House Bill no. 4691 seeks to amend the heck out of the Child Custody Act of 1970, all the way down to the name. The new name tells you everything up front: they want to call it the “Michigan Shared Parenting Act.” Here are the changes that you need to be aware of: “Best Interests of the Child” The ...
CONTINUE READINGHow to Divorce a Narcissist, Part II
In Part I of How to Divorce a Narcisssist, we laid out the two most fundamental steps to successfully separating yourself from the narcissist in your life: first, see them for what they are, and second, disengage from them entirely. But anyone who has even the slightest inkling what a divorce is like already knows that you cannot disengage from ...
CONTINUE READINGHow to Divorce a Narcissist, Part 1
Divorce is rarely a pleasant experience, but there are few divorces that are more painful to watch than those that involve one relatively normal, down-to-earth person and one massive, overbearing narcissist. Keeping in mind that a narcissist has little regard for facts, needs to be proven ‘right’ even if it means burning everything they ought to care about to the ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat the Heck is a Family, Anyway? Part II
In Part I, we talked about a few of the legal (and legalistic) definitions of ‘family’ that some corporations and states have used in the past, and why they aren’t adequate to the task of defining a family. Now it’s time to talk about the stranger reasons why defining ‘family’ is even less possible than it seems. Things Get (Less) ...
CONTINUE READINGWhat the Heck is a Family, Anyway? Part I
Family law. Simple enough in concept, right? It’s legal stuff…about families. But what the heck is a ‘family,’ anyway? Almost every attempt to define ‘family’ in any legal, moral, ethical, or other rules-oriented fashion has given rise to the kinds of problems that would have overthrown small countries a few centuries ago. Let’s look at a few classic examples of ...
CONTINUE READINGPepsi vs. Coke: The Psychology of Dating vs. Marriage
Back in the 80s, there was a massively successful advertising campaign executed by Pepsi, called the Pepsi Challenge. It was simple: take random people, have them taste-test a few brown carbonated drinks, and have them pick their favorite. Pepsi was overwhelmingly the victor, and it made for a hell of a series of commercials. So much so that it inadvertently ...
CONTINUE READINGStaying Together for the Children: Wise or Not?
There are two camps of thought when it comes to dealing with children when you can no longer deal with their other parent. The first says that enduring the bad relationship in order to keep the children living with both parents is better for the kids in the end. The other says that kids are better off switching back and ...
CONTINUE READINGThe Spider’s Web of Divorce and Bankruptcy
Quite often, divorce and money troubles go hand in hand. For some couples, severe money issues can lead to divorce. For others, the divorce is what causes the money issues (for at least one spouse, if not both). When those money issues become severe enough to lead to bankruptcy for one or both of you, the timing of the bankruptcy ...
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